On Media

Hannity: Media 'dysfunctional and illiterate'

Conservative radio host Sean Hannity on Wednesday said the “god-awful” fiscal cliff deal illustrates how the media is “dysfunctional and illiterate.”

Hannity told his radio show listeners that Congress's fiscal cliff deal is “insanity” — but if you listen to the press, he said, that’s not the picture that emerges.

“You are watching, literally, dysfunction, at a level that I have not seen in my lifetime,” he said. “Decisions that are so bad, and yet, if you listen to the press, ‘oh, we avoided the fiscal cliff.’ The problem is it’s not the problem here.”

“None of what they’re telling you is true,” Hannity added.

The deal, Hannity said, stemmed from the media and President Barack Obama working together to create a “manufactured crisis.”

“What was passed last night was an awful, I mean a god-awful deal, that was the result of a media, Democrat President Obama, manufactured crisis that literally has nothing to do with the real fiscal problems that face this country. Nothing. Zero,” he said. “And it illustrates just how dysfunctional, not only the government is, but how dysfunctional and illiterate, frankly, the media in this country is as well.”

Hannity didn't just attack the media for the fiscal cliff deal — the radio host also blasted conservatives in Congress who agreed to it. Some Republicans, he said, “didn’t have the stomach for the fight.”

“The deal in every way is a bad deal, and it’s one, frankly, that conservatives should have rejected outright,” Hannity told his listeners. “But from the very beginning, because there was a timeframe on this, the president used that to his advantage and he argued that Republicans were going to bring the nation over the fiscal cliff and everybody’s taxes were going to go up. So he had the media on his side and some Republicans didn’t have the stomach for the fight. And that’s troubling to me — when are they going to have the stomach for this fight?”